


Whistling

by Warringer (The_Fenspace_Collective)



Category: Fenspace
Genre: Fenspace - Freeform, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-09-09
Updated: 2011-09-09
Packaged: 2018-01-01 00:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1037945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fenspace_Collective/pseuds/Warringer





	1. Chapter 1

**September 3rd, 2008**

I never thought that I'd ever write something of a diary before now, but then again I think that I need to write this down.

About a year ago this insanity started...

Handwavium devices from the Worldcon hit the news, Usenet and forums. And that after Katz Schrödinger hit space with his refit little boat, making it into space...

Dozens of people went into space after him and there was more then one panic, be it the Professor in Paris or Copenhagen, or That Con over in the States.

A year since I started to talk with a couple of friends online.

We talked and brainstormed via IRC and eventually came to a realization.

Everywhere geeks and nerds like us were messing with Handwavium and went into space.

We're going to do the same.

A personal meeting is in order. I suggested a small camping area in Ostfriesland because my parents got a camping trailer there.  
  
 **September 21st, 2008**

We had our first meeting in real life today. Only three of them came through.

Thorsten, who goes by Bully and is an electronic engineer in real life, Alexander, aka Mehandor and is a mechanic, and to my surprise the only female in our little group, Danni, aka Thora who works for EADS/Astrium of all places as aerospace engineer.

We're going to have a fun couple of days, especially since Thorsten somehow managed to get himself some Handwavium. He refuses to share his source through.  
  
 **September 24th, 2008**

I think we have found a way to realize this and to pay for it. Okay sure we are going to keep shut about the whole thing, but were going to do this. Neither of us is a political person and none of us wants to get involved into the politics that begin to grow in space.

I got the idea when I read that the ISS once again needed to change orbit and after Alex reminded me of the manga 'Planetes'. Sure we may all be Rhodanites, but we do have other interests in the fandom.

So, we are going to play cleanup crew and gather up orbital debris. Nice, boring and out of the way.

And we all like the _Toy Box_ as a ship design.

Still need to find out how to do this.  
  
 **December 12th, 2008**

Once again we talked about this. We're going to get ourselves some out of the way place to build out _Toy Box_.

I managed to find an old wharf up at the coast, close to Norden. I think we can rent it for some time. We do need to lay low through, like just about everyone...  
  
 **January 6th, 2009**

Here we are at the wharf I found for us. Nicely large, she should fit the _Toy Box_ when she's completed. Considering that we are going to base her around a couple of ISO containers to make building her easier, it should be possible to get this done in about a year or so.  
  
 **January 22nd, 2009**

We got ourselves a couple of containers today. The stuff you can get on Ebay...

Six large 45 feet containers, four 40 feet containers, nine 20 feet containers and two 20 feet tank containers.

The 45 feet containers are going to be our cargo bay, with the 40s the backbone of the _Toy Box_ with life support, a hangar for two small dinghies, and the living quarters. Six of the 20s are going to be the front part with C &C and the main living areas, the last three are going to play 'engineering' in the back of the ship. The two tanks will be just that. Tanks for water to use as reaction mass for the three fusion engines we plan to use.

The rest to get the shape of the ship is going to be plywood, sheet steel and glass fiber. We really need to get down to make some Whipple shields through, if we plan to get into debris clouds. We're not sure if the 'wavium is going to be able to get us armored enough.

We're going to need to build a proof of concept for the engines now...  
  
 **March 21st, 2009**

Oh my god...

It was glorious!

We managed to get the first proof of concept fusion engine to work!

A 'waved home build Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor with an expansion nuzzle...

Danni think that we get at least Specific Impulse of more then one thousand out of that little engine...

But without a dedicated test area no idea how much it really got.

We called it Philo MKI and will build another one of those to put into our parasites. The bigger ones for the _Toy Box_ are going to be named Philo MKII.  
  
 **May 1st, 2009**

So much for Labor Day...

We're all working on something or another.

Thorsten is trying to get that old Radar system working he managed to find on ebay. Alex is testing the weldings on the hydraulics of our new cargo bay and Danni is working on the third main engine.

And I'm the only one left to handle glass fiber and a 'wavium-epoxy mix. Great going there...

I wonder how the Internet reception up there is. I need to take a look at Naedial once in a while after all...  
  
 **May 10th, 2009**

Finally finished!

Getting that fiberglass mold together was a pain... Just like mixing the 'wavium and the epoxy. I think I managed to swallow some...

At least it now looks about right. A few coats of paint and we can mount it over the outer whipple shield layer.  
  
 **May 26th, 2009**

I was out for three days and what happens? I go wogon...

The whole nine yards at that. Wings, fur, tail... To top it off, I think did pretty much go Naedial...

Not going to be able to get out before dark anymore. There goes getting drunk in a pub before launch...

Looks like I swallowed enough 'vawium when I worked on the fiberglass...  
  
 **June 10th, 2009**

I have decided...

To do a name change. With this biomod I'm not my old self anymore.

Naedial Warringer does have a nice ring to it through.  
  
 **August 3rd, 2009**

And another one bites the dust.

We're nearly done with the _Box_ and all that was still needed was a computer system. Thorsten and Danni cobbled some networked computer together out of a couple of 'waved Atom boards with a 'waved quad core machine as central computer.

Or course there were a few problems...

Namely an AI awakening in the system.

So how are we going to deal with an AI who believes that its Fee Carmichael, the commander of the 'original' _Toy Box_? And who wants to get a smoke?

At least she's going to be a valuable assets once were upstairs.  
  
 **August 15th, 2009**

We hit a little problem, we're nearly out of money and Fee reminded us that we still need space suits up there.

For the guys there is not that much of a problem, but for me it is. Nothing we can whip up at the moment is going to fit me...

Great...

And to top it off the air in the _Toy Box_ begins to faintly smell like tobacco smoke. We need to change the filters.  
  
 **August 30th, 2009**

Well, Danni had a surprise for me. She managed to make me a space suit. Out of a wet suit with some modifications on it.

I have to say that it fits surprisingly well, considering that I have problems with most clothes because of my wings.

I think I may start to wear it 24/7 as its the only piece of clothing that really fits me.

Changing the filters did not work on the tobacco smell. Perhaps our first quirk on the _Toy Box_  ?  
  
 **September 21st, 2009**

One year ago we first came together and planned this. But now we need to be off.

Somehow someone got the LKA Niedersachsen interested in out little wharf. And they in turn told the BKA...

Now we got a couple of hundred cops outside, three helos in the air above us and some ships out on the sea.

We need to make a break for it now. A month ahead of schedule... At least our tanks are filled to the brim...

* * *

"Ouch," the dusky voice of Naedial echoed through the cockpit of the _Toy Box_ as she squeezed her two meters through the rather small airlock, hitting her head and wings along the way. "I can't wait until we hit orbit."  
  
  


Behind her Danni chuckled lightly, while the speakers in the cockpit echoed the snort that came from Fee, the resident AI of the _Toy Box_.  
  
  


"After five month you should have gotten used to that..."  
  
  


Naedial directed a glare at the next screen that displayed the amused face of the afro-American AI, before sitting down on the pilots seat, a customized seat that took care of her rather impressive wings and the thick tail she had gotten in that little Handwavium accident, where she had swallowed some of the stuff that had been fed images and pieces of armor and a good amount of composite materials.  
  
  


"I will be all right as soon as we're in space," she grumbled and looked out of the window and down to where Thorsten put last minutes stuff into a 20 feet container for Alex to load into the _Box'_ s cargo bay. It was not much, considering that they had wanted to plan their launch a bit more careful over the next few weeks. Now with the police all around them, that was a problem.  
  
  


Something vibrated in the biomodded wolf-dragon (at least that is what she called herself) hybrids hip bag, making her frown lightly. She opened the bag, fishing her 'waved cellphone from it.  
  
  


"Yes?" she asked, hearing someone call her old name.  
  
  


"This is Hauptkommissar Hallmackenrheuter, BKA," the voice on the other hand said and Naedial turned on the speaker of her phone.  
  
  


"Gets you a good amount of Loriot jokes, doesn't it?" she asked and could literally see the frown on the mans face.  
  
  


"You should know that you can't get away," Hallmackenrheuter noted. "We have you surrounded. It would be best to come out and end this peacefully. Owning and working with Handwavium is a big offense."  
She looked over to Danni who shook her head.  
  
  


"You offend me. Do you really think that we wouldn't get away with it? Do you know what we build in here?"  
  
  


There was a short pause on the other end and Naedial mouthed to Fee that the guys should move faster and get in the ship. Fee nodded and Naedial could hear her faintly through the hull of the cockpit.  
  
  


"Obviously some sort of space ship," was the response." But I doubt that it is ready."  
  
  


Naedial, Fee and Dani snorted nearly unison.  
  
  


"You should check your sources," she noted looking outside.  
  
  


The container was out of sight and she could hear the large cargo bay doors, which used to be a number of 45 foot containers, closing. On the screen a text appeared, telling her that Alex and Thorsten were aboard.  
"Sorry, Herr Hauptkommissar, but we got a meeting with someone at L5," she interrupted him as he tried to say something and thumbed a phone button to close the call.  
  
  


Instantly her face went serious as she concentrated on the controls in front of her. They were designed from the ground up and everyone on the ship could theoretically fly it, but only Naedial had shown any real talent. And even that only after her biomodding accident.  
  
  


Hands flashed out to the keyboard and the various switches as she went through a now trained startup sequence, with Fee taking care of the various small stuff, eyes on a small multi mode display that showed the various infos about the ship.  
  
  


There was a triple of low bangs as she large Philo MKII fusion torch engines lit up, venting low amounts of gas into the air, before a low pitched whine and the sudden lack of gravity inside the cockpit showed that the ship was ready to go.  
  
  


"Whoa," Alex made as he and Thomas suddenly lost the ground under their feet, followed by a loud 'ouch' coming from Thomas as he hit his head against the ceiling of the re-purposed container.  
Naedial grinned and turned around to them as the large doors of the wharf opened like it was a clichéd movie.  
  
  


"Its 350000 kilometers to L5, we got full tanks of water, half a Mars bar, its not dark yet and we forgot the sunglasses," she quipped, getting a snort out of everyone.  
  
  


"Hit it," Fee finally called out and Naedial pushed the three thrust controllers forward, igniting the three engines.  
  
  


Three lances of not quite hot plasma began to push the _Toy Box_ forwards, out of the open doors of the wharf and over the rather calm sea.  
  
  


"Well, they can't stop us now," Danni noted with a grin and reached out to start the music track she had chosen for this moment.  
  
  


"Good thing we're not the bad guys, or they would," Thomas notes.  
  
  


All speakers on the ship, either internal or external began to play 'Don't stop me now' from Queen as Naedial angled the _Toy Box_ up vertically, past the helicopters that were moving in to intercept them and pushed the thrust controllers all the way forward.  
  
  


All four of the ships crew were pushed back into their seats as the powerful engines pushed the brick like spaceship forwards to overcome air pressure.  
  
  


At first slow like any hardtech rocket the ship rose nearly straight upwards, rattling the ship like there was no tomorrow.  
  
  


Later on a video of the launch of the up to date largest German build fenship popped up on YouTube and a small policeman was send to a small town named Hengasch.  
  
  


The _Toy Box_ continued to raise through the air, hitting Mach One about two kilometers above ground, just as a pair of Luftwaffe Tornados moved to intercept her.  
  
  


Going straight upwards allowed the ship to avoid many of the problems other fenships had faced, but it had its own problems as the shaking only got stronger inside the ship, making it look like it was about to fall apart at any moment to the crew.  
  
  


"Hitting MaxQ," Fee announced about ten kilometers above ground." Looks like we're going to make it."  
Like they had trained, Naedial reduced the thrust of the engines after that, so that they only were at about fifty percent power, before letting gravity affect the large space ship, slowly pulling it into a gravity turn, much like hardtech rockets had used to get into a nice orbit.  
  
  


Much of the rest of the flight followed a similar pattern of hardtech rocketry rules.  
  
  


"Oh my god..."  
  
  


Naedial had long since stopped to control the ship, making Fee take over as she and the others stared out of the cockpit windows at the blue-gree-brown marble that was Earth as they finally entered orbit.  
  
  


There was another loud tripple of bangs as the engines turned off and the ship began to float on its own.  
  
  


"Its beautiful..."  
  
  


They kept staring out into space and the Earth beneath them for a long while before Alex spoke up.  
  
  


"And now?"

* * *

"Okay, people, sitrep."  
  
  


The four fen crew of the _Toy Box_ sat around the table in the sole room of the ship that had full gravity, the small kitchen that was build into one of the frontal containers. Okay their beds and the bathroom were under gravity as well, but that was it for the _Toy Box_. A coffee machine puttered in the background while a coffee can stood between them and each had a mug of coffee in front of them. And various sheets of paper.  
  
  


"Does not look so good," Fee, who took part over a screen and webcam in one corner of the kitchen. "You can be glad that you started to live aboard two weeks ago..."  
  
  


The four fen nodded and drank of their coffee.  
  
  


"What do we have?" Naedial wondered and everyone looked down at their papers. In the last hour they had been busy to put together a list of things they had at all.  
  
  


"Does not look too good on the food front," Thorsten noted and everyone rolled their eyes.  
  
  


"Its always about food with you..." Danni noted and got a sigh out of Thorsten.  
  
  


"I wanted to get us food stuff today," he noted." But since we were interrupted... Not much left. A couple of cans of soup, some pork, vegetables and potatoes. Some sausage and bread. Not enough for more then maybe two days. The positive thing is that we are not going to run out of coffee, snacks or beer for the next three weeks."  
  
  


"At least we can get drunk..." Naedial noted and they looked at Alexander who shrugged.  
  
  


"We got most of our tools," he said." We lost one of the Darwins downstairs through. But the rest was already loaded into the big containers."  
  
  


"At least something," Thorsten said with a nod.  
  
  


They had bought some tools through Ebay. Most importantly a CNC lathe and a CNC milling machine. A pair of old robot arms had been an impulse purchase. And then they used to have three RepRap Darwin 3D printers, but now they were down to two. Not that much of a problem as all machines were 'waved and they could still build more Dawins.  
  
  


And Alexander was a toolmaker, so the mechanical work was not going to be any problem.  
  
  


"We also got some of the materials. At least enough to build ten more Darwins."  
  
  


Again everyone nodded.  
  
  


"Anything we missed on the _Box_?"  
  
  


"Well, the plumbing is still unfinished," Danni noted.  
  
  


"Where can we find a plumber up here?"  
  
  


"So what do we do now?"  
  
  


They were silent for a few minutes either staring down at their coffee or drinking from it.  
  
  


"Maybe its the best if we go for L5. Stellvia should be a good place to start after Starbase 1 moved to Mars."  
  
  


"Aren't we pretty much broke up here?"

* * *

**September 22nd, 2009**   
  
  


We have docked with Stellvia to get ourselves some more food then what we have. I don't want only coffee, snacks or beer for the next three weeks...  
  
  


The downside is that we were broke and had to sell one of our Darwins and two 50 liter barrels of beer. Interestingly enough German beer sold for more then the 3D printer.  
  
  


And we managed to find a plumber. Some guy named Julian Friez. He did some really good work.  
  
  


Anyway, we now have mostly instant food for the next month and a place to store our tools and materials for a month. After that we're broke again. So we better manage to get stuff together to sell next time we dock with Stellvia again.  
  
 **October 15th, 2009**   
  
  


Well, well, well...  
  
  


Looks like we managed to fill our cargo hold for the first time. We managed to capture a number of old satellites, but out best catches are two Agena Target Vehicles from the Gemini program. One from Gemini 8 and the other of Gemini 10.  
  
  


We put our catch up on the Interwave and there are a number of fen who want them. But I have the feeling that the U.S. Space & Rocket Center or the Smithsonian are going to make it for those two. They just have more money...

* * *

"Guys," Danni said as she popped her head through the hatch leading into the cockpit, a wide grin on her face. "You never guess what I just got us."  
  
  


"A stripper?" Alex wondered and got a glare from Danni, while the other chuckled.  
  
  


"Nope," she said and the grin returned to her face. "A big contract! I called a fried of mine who works at SES Astra."  
  
  


"And?" Naedial wondered. Over the last weeks she had become something of the captain of their little crew.  
  
  


"Astra is willing to pay us for cleaning up their orbits. We can even keep the old Astra birds as salvage."  
  
  


The other three looked at each other for some time before grinning.  
  
  


"There's more. If we could do it, they'd be willing to pay us for doing maintenance on their current working birds. Refueling the tanks, replace transceivers. Stuff like that."  
  
  


While Alex and Thomas grinned at each other and moved to get themselves a beer, Naedial looked thoughtful.  
  
  


"I hope we can get that on paper," she noted." I'd hate to have some big company dirtside to call us criminals or something."  
  
  


Danni nodded.  
  
  


"My friend wants to meet us in two days on Stellvia for talks and maybe even signing the contracts."

* * *

Later that day, the _Toy Box_ was well on a trajectory that would get her to L5 and Stellvia, the four crew members sat around the table in the small kitchen again, eating lunch.  
  
  


"You know," Naedial piped up after she finished." We should get us an Operation Base if we really want to get into this business. Somewhere to repair the _Box_ and maybe even a satellite. Stellvia isn't going to cut it. _  
_  
  


The others looked at her.  
  
  


"And what do you have in mind?" Alex wondered before biting down into a sandwich.  
  
  


"Our own station."  
  
  


Thorsten snorted and Danni raised an eyebrow.  
  
  


"Do you know how much we need to build our own station? Even with the Smithsonian buying GATV-5003, we can't pay for one."  
  
  


Thorsten takled about the Agena Target Vehicle of Gemini 8 that was bought by the Smithsonian for about two million dollar, while U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville was willing to pay one and a half million for the ATV of Gemini 10, GATV-5005.  
  
  


"That's the beauty. Very little."  
  
  


Again the reactions varied. From a raised eyebrow, to a snort or a shaking head.  
  
  


"Anyone knows the term 'Wet Workshop'?" Naedial asked with a grin, stretching her wings slightly.  
  
  


"One of your perverted ideas. No doubt," Alex noted dryly, quipping on the wogons special preferences. Naedial snorted with a grin on her face, while the other two laughed.  
  
  


"She's taking about a idea to use old rocket stages or external shuttle tanks as space stations," Fee noted after a moment. "Stellvia uses that with its habitat ring."  
  
  


Naedial nodded.  
  
  


"Exactly," she notes." I've done a little research and stumbled over Skylab. It was build from a S-IVB stage of the Saturn V."  
  
  


She grinned a little more.  
  
  


"And now take a guess how many S-IVB stages currently float in solar orbit..."  
  
  


"Six?" Thorsten wondered.  
  
  


"Three," came from Alex.  
  
  


"Ten," Danni said after playing a little with her fingers to count the manned Apollo missions.  
  
  


"Close, but no cigar," Naedial said with a grin." There are five spend stages. And some of the eggheads from the NASA think that the one from Apollo 12 has been captured again by Earth for a while."  
  
  


She chuckled.  
  
  


"A single one has a volume of nearly six 40 foot containers," she noted and chuckled again." At least that is what Wolfram Alpha tells me. That would be about four times the volume of our cargo hold with all five stages. That should be enough space to set up a workshop for our tools, a repair bay and some living quarters."  
  
  


The wogon grinned a little more.  
  
  


"If we manage to find a couple of Centaur or Agena satellite busses we can even add some tanks for remass and our own 'vawium."  
  
  


The others looked at their rather exited looking 'captain' and Thorsten leaned to Danni.  
  
  


"If she starts to cackle madly, I'm out of the "Box _as soon as we hit Stellvia._

* * *

**October 17th, 2009**   
  
  


And we are in!  
  
  


Two contracts with SES Astra. One to remove their old satellites and a second one to run maintenance on the rest.  
  
  


There is only one problem with the second contract...  
  
  


They want to send one of their own men and a certified astronaut up to do the actual maintenance. In a sense we're only going to act as a ferry service.  
  
  


Well, at least Danni used to work in the satellite end production when she was still employed by EADS Astrium.  
  
  


But it looks like Whistler Orbital Services is now officially in business...  
  
 **November 6th, 2009**   
  
  


We got our station nearly finished. Some finishing touches on the main air lock and we should be set up.  
  
  


We do have a hard seal on the two S-IVBs that are the workshop, the cargo hold and the living quarters, but there are still a few problems with the air lock. I'm going to take a look at it, while the crew goes to Stellvia with two of our salvaged Centaurs to fuel up on water.  
  
  


Someone needs to stay behind until we can get an AI online to control our station.  
  
  


Still need a name. Right now its a tossup between Stardust and KA Preiswert.

* * *

Naedial floated inside the currently gravityless S-IVB stage that was to act as a large airlock for any larger items they hoped to fix. It was welded to three of the four other former third stages of the Saturn V. Sheet steel smoothed over the edges of the stages, making it appear to have straight edges with rounded corners. One of the rounded corners formed the airlock to open space.  
  
  


The fifth stage was sitting on top of the others with a docking adapter on the end for the _Toy Box_.  
  
  


"Damned thing," Naedial grumbled as she stared at the open box that was build to control the two air locks of the stage.  
  
  


It had not yet been 'waved and some cables stuck from it, while a small black microcontroller seemed to taunt Naedial.  
  
  


Frustrated from her lack of any process with the thing, she took a hammer and gave the box a light whack.  
  
  


There was a spark as she accidentally bridging two cabled. Before she knew what happened the inner air lock had closed and the well known mysterious blue smoke poured out of the box.  
  
  


"Ahh shit," Naedial said and peered into the box, trying to find the origin.  
  
  


Sometimes it was handy to have training as electronic technician, even if it had all been three nearly wasted years as no one had given her a job after it.  
  
  


Looking at the box, she noticed a small capacitor that had all but exploded in the small energy spike from the hammer spike and she sighed. Now she had to take it out and exchange it for a new one.  
  
  


She was about to reach for a screwdriver as she noticed a creaking and turned her head to see how the outer air lock buckled lightly.  
  
  


"Oh fuck," she muttered.  
  
  


That was bad. She had completely forgotten to get her life support stuff in the workshop and now the air lock looked ready to burst open.  
  
  


A few thoughts shot through her head, most importantly the thought that she was not going to explode messily in space, unlike in the movies. Maybe she could get into the air lock at the docking port when she hyperventilated now to get as much oxygen into her blood before the airlock burst open?  
  
  


Oh, who was she kidding... This was not '2001: A Space Odyssey'...  
  
  


Grabbing a nearby handrail welded to the inner wall of the former tank, she held for her dear life as the air lock finally burst open, adding some debris to semi-synchronous orbit that was going to be picked up later.  
  
  


The thought that moved through Naedials head was that her friends were going to find her lifeless corpse hanging off the handrail when they returned.  
  
  


Rather then trying to hold her breath, she let go of the air in her lungs, hoping against all odds that she would make it. Trying to hold her breath would only make her lungs explode.  
  
  


Seconds ticked by as she reached for other handrails, to pull herself into free space and eventually to the dock, waiting for unconsciousness to claim her at any moment now.  
  
  


The seconds stretched to a minute as she reached the edge of the airlock and looked outside. Immediately she felt warmer as the sunlight from behind her hit her wings.  
  
  


She had long since learned that her wings were useless as actual wings and were mostly heat radiators as she had lost the ability to sweat with the biomod. Now the heat was cycled back into her body as the spread wings caught the sunlight.  
  
  


There was still no sign of a beginning unconsciousness as she pulled herself out of the airlock and up towards the edge of the former tank where they had bolted a conventional ladder to the stations hull to move around easier. That would allow her to get to the docking air lock quite fast.  
  
  


As the next minutes of careful maneuvering in micro gravity ticked by, Naedial noted a few more things. For one the tears of her eyes, while it had frozen solid by now, were still fully clear, allowing her to see everything around her. Her saliva did not present much of a problem either.  
  
  


Finally she managed to grab hold of the ladder and pulled herself along it towards the upper end of the station and the docking port. She opened the empty and airless airlock at the port, pulling herself inside before cycling it.  
  
  


Slowly air filled the air lock and she began to take in her first deep breathes in minutes, while curiosity got the better of her.  
  
  


She had just survived in space without any shielding in the sense of a space suit for several minutes and she didn't even feel too winded about it. Not more then after taking about ten flights of stairs. So she looked at her watch as she took more careful breathes.  
  
  


The air lock opened to the inside to take a look at the rudimentary station controls. Opening a log file she noted the time when the air lock had opened to space. She blinked a few times, the ice over her eyes melting again.  
  
  


She had just survived about fifteen minutes without a breath.  
  
  


Then it hit her. The handwavium that had accidentally biomodded her had been intended to vacuum proof and armor the _Toy Box_. Apparently it had extended to her as well.  
  
  


She grinned widely. That had potential. Maybe she could whip up a breathing mask and get rid of the uncomfortable helmet and the even more uncomfortable wing and tail bags?  
  
  


As the _Toy Box_ returned two hours later with two water filled Centaur II stages, Naedial hung inside the open large airlock trying to fix the air lock controller, wearing only her wetsuit, tool/stuff belt and a 'waved respirator mask that had originally been meant for work inside the workshop.  
  
  


Needless to say they were grilling her after that for days until letting it drop. From then on Naedial would always keep the respirator on her tool/stuff belt, then with an integrated bluetooth headset connected to her 'waved cellphone.

* * *

**November 15th, 2009**   
  
  


So much for calling our station Stardust. While we were not looking a couple of Rhodanites had set up shop at L5 and called their station Stardust. Calling a station in semi-synchronous orbit Stardust when there is one named the same in the more populated L5 is a bad move.  
  
  


So we decided that we'd go with out alternative, KA Preiswert.  
  
  


But we won't hold it against them. We are Rhodanites as well, even through we're more of generalists with strong leanings towards Hard SciFi.  
  
  


Still, time to turn on the new computer system and see if an AI awakens.

* * *

Everyone was more or less standing in the small control center of KA Preiswert looking at the various screens that lined one of the bulkheads, while three new high end blade server racks, about a quarter million dollar in hardware, sat along another. There was hardly any place to stand. Danni, Thorsten and Alex had trouble standing inside, even with the chair pulled out, so Naedial had to stand outside, through her size allowed her to peer inside the room anyway.  
  
  


"Here goes nothing," Danni said as she glanced at the large breaker switch next to the servers.  
  
  


She flipped the switch and power from the 'waved Fusor flowed through tick cables into the server racks, awakening the 'waved Multicore CPUs to life. Familiar BIOS lines and other information scrolled down the screens, different to most other bootups of AI systems. Then, blank screens.  
  
  


Only the breathing of four people, the low whirring sound coming from the fans of the servers and the low rumble of the life support system could be heard for the next few minutes, while the screens remained blank.  
  
  


Then a single command prompt opened on one screen and everyone blinked.  
  
  


"Thats it?" Alex wondered and stared at the keyboard and mouse combo that sat in front of the wall of screens.  
  
  


'I'd know about it if anything else had happened' appeared on the screen, the prompt jumping to the next line.  
  
  


Again everyone blinked, looking at the screen, while the noise from the servers increased a little with it accessing the Internet and Interwave systems.  
  
  


"At least something," Thomas noted dryly before turning to Danni, who had set up the servers. "What did you put into the hard drives?"  
  
  


Danni sighed and eyed the servers and at a small USB Stick that poked out from an USB port.  
  
  


"My Rhodan collection," she said.  
  
  


This made everyone look at her and then at the screens.  
  
  


"Lets hope that we have gotten us a nice AI..." Naedial noted. "I'd hate to have some MdI hiding in out station."  
  
  


'I'd know about that' the screen printed out followed by 'I will keep out of the private quarters'  
  
  


"What?"  
  
  


'I will keep out of the private quarters'  
  
  


'Now please excuse me while I familiarize me with my surroundings'  
  
  


'Which is the reason why I not yet use any other IO'  
  
  


Everyone looked at each other.  
  
  


"Who are you," Danni finally asked.  
  
  


'You may call me SENECA'  
  
  


"Oh ha..."

* * *

**November 20th, 2009**   
  
  


With KA Preiswert now finished, we called SES Astra that we were ready to start up on our contract and remove some of the older Astra satellites from their graveyard orbits. They then told us that they had a technician and a former ESA astronaut for use to ferry around when we get to do maintenance on the sattelites.  
  
  


Apparently their astronaut was removed from the astronaut corps of ESA when the Ammis stopped the shuttle back in 2008 and got hired by Astra just last week. They are now on their way to Stellvia, where we will meet up with them in about two days.  
  
  


Looks like we got two more crew members.  
  
 **November 22th, 2009**   
  
  


Got to meet our new men.  
  
  


André DuPond, no relation to that company, our new technician and Terris O'Conner our actual astronaut. Not that he had ever been in space before. Both seem to be nice enough guys, but they are a bit overwhelmed by Fenspace. Oh well, I'm sure that we'll be able to set them straight up here. By the end of the week they will take me as being normal up here. Compared to some of the fen I'm actually normal...  
  
 **January 10th, 2010**   
  
  


Looks like Terris wants to remain in space. As André was called back to Earth to be rotated around with another technician for Astra, Terris told them that he wants to hire up with us.  
  
  


Astra allowed it and we now have a real astronaut among us. Well, at least until we are all actual spacers.  
  
  


Astra also notes that they wouldn't send up another technician, as Terris is trained for the job as well. and because we actually did a good job.  
  
 **February 5th, 2010**   
  
  


We do some good work for Astra it seems. Eutelsat has approached us with two contracts very similar to that of Astra. Since we have Terris and know what we do by now, they won't sent anyone up to us.  
  
  


Another job is one for the ESA and the NASA. Looks like SOHO out at the Earth-Sol L1 makes some problems and they asked us to see what we can do. Fee has already received the plans for SOHO and we're going to see what he have on un-'waved materials that could be used to repair SOHO. But it looks like we're going to be out a little longer than normal. One week at least.

* * *

As the _Toy Box_ undocked from KA Preiswert and slowly moved away from the station with its altitude jets, the lights in the workshop were dimmed by SENECA to conserve energy.  
  
  


Minutes later a small LED light lit up in one of the shelves that contained parts from an old salvaged US satellite. No one exactly knew what the satellite had done when it was still active, but the hardware was rather hardy and useful for quite a few fen. Only the main computer bus had remained behind.  
  
  


An hour later the computers of the workshop powered up and seemed to work on their own, something SENECA noticed within microseconds. But the stations computer didn't do anything, being kept out of the workshops systems and not being ordered what to do in this case.  
  
  


So the webcams that acted as his eyes observed how the machines in the workshop began with a mysterious construction on their own.

* * *

**February 21st, 2010**   
  
  


The SOHO mission was longer then expected. The bird had more problems then the eggheads at ESA/NASA thought. Actual testing of the solar observatory showed a good number of problems they did not notice with the software readouts.  
  
  


And then we had to help some idiot in a Corolla who forgot to fill up on petrol.  
  
  


He's now safe and sound at Stellvia.  
  
  


And we will be happy to get back to KA Preiswert.

* * *

There was a hiss of air as the airlock on top of KA Preiswert opened up and Naedial peeked through.  
  
  


"Honey, we're home!" she called out, making the other snicker behind her.  
  
  


"I hope you had a successful mission, ma'am," SENECA noted in his normal completely dry deadpan tone of voice. For his voice alone he would have made a good British butler.  
  
  


"Reasonably," Naedial noted and sighed. "You know the files."  
  
  


"That I do."  
  
  


Naedial slowly pulled herself through the airlock and turned herself as she pushed herself into the part of the station that was under gravity. By now she was long trained with this maneuver and it had lost its uniqueness.  
  
  


"There is something in the workshop that you might want to see," SENECA noted after a few moments as the other fell through the airlock and dropped into the gravity of the station.  
  
  


"Don't tell me that there is another 'wavium spill on the west shelve," Danni piped up. There had been a spill four weeks ago, going over about half the part the shelve had contained. Since they were not powered no one could tell exactly what the parts were now capable of doing.  
  
  


"I would know it if there was another spill," SENECA noted and brought an image of the workshop up to the screen.  
  
  


On the screen something that resembled a metal egg floated towards one of the edges of the screen, while one of the robot arms of the workshop waved something red and floppy into the image for a moment.  
  
  


"What the hell?"  
  
  


The five man crew looked at each other before trying to get to the workshop first.  
  
  


Somehow Naedial managed to be the first to get down the ladder that lead to the workshop first and pulled open the hatch to it. Being the first to look through she could see something that resembled an oversized anthropomorphic toy dragon in red rubber sitting on a bench, a seam slowly disappearing on its front. The others bumped into her from behind, pushing her forward.  
  
  


She stumbled forward and towards the oversized toy, making her wave around her arms and wings for a few moments, before she reached out to hold herself up with the help of the red toy dragon.  
In the same moment the toy dragon's eyes lit up from the inside and it reached out with its own arms to keep Naedial up, incidentally pressing her face into the toys chest. Here Naedial discovered that the toy appeared to be female, considering the now quite obvious most common superpower.  
  
  


"What the heck?" Terris summed up everyones thoughts.

* * *

Half an hour later everyone had gathered in the living room of KA Preiswert, sitting on the couches, while the dragon toy was standing in one corner.  
  
  


After finding out that the dragon was not dangerous, they had used the time to review a video that SENECA had made during the SOHO mission, showing what exactly had happened in the workshop.  
  
  


"Why didn't you call us?" Danni finally asked.  
  
  


"My orders said that I only was to call you if something was wrong with the station. I fail to see how unexpected activity in the workshop could be seen as something being wrong with the station."  
  
  


Everyones heads then turned around to face the red dragon.  
  
  


"What do you mean you asked him not to tell us?" Alexander asked, before what had just happened sunk in.  
  
  


Everyone knew what the dragon has said, but no one could remember actually hearing it.  
  
  


"What" Thorsten made as a reaction.  
  
  


"It appears that our new friend does not communicate normally," SENECA noted dryly." I would not call it telepathy, since I seem to understand her as well. I just seem to know what she wanted to say, just as you apparently."  
  
  


Now that they were able to somehow understand the dragon, she communicated that she was the computer module of a late 80s SigInt satellite. Apparently she gained sentience in the wake the 'wavium spill. Only with the crew of the _Toy Box_ leaving for an extended time had allowed her to take control of the workshop to build herself a new body. Somehow she had come over the files describing the VARIO-500 robot from Perry Rhodan, and some of Naedials personal files, and had decided on using that as a body.  
  
  


"I am not a newfangled toy!" SENECA suddenly called out, making everyone blink at the vehement tone in his voice." I am a highly sophisticated Artificial Intelligence. And my defenses are up to date."  
  
  


The eyes once again turned to the dragon, who just shrugged visibly.  
  
  


"Okay, what are you going to do now?" Naedial asked after a few moments of silence, making the dragon shrug again commuting that she did not know.  
  
  


"How about working for us?" Danni suggested, eying the dragon shaped AI.  
  
  


"Not exactly what I would do," SENECA noted, his voice sounding put off by the dragon.  
  
  


What followed was a longer discussion about whether or not they could trust the dragon. It had build itself in secret. But it had not attacked anyone. It had remained silent during the two week after the spill. But it did note that it did not know anything about the station and crew then.  
  
  


"What is your name anyway?" Terris asked in between, once again making the dragon shrug, communicating that it did now have a name.  
  
  


"How about 'Vario'?" Naedial suggested after a while, making the dragon nod.  
  
  


The discussion what to do with the newly named Vario continued for the rest of the day, eventually leading to the conclusion that they would give her a chance. Curiously Vario ended up sitting on Naedial's lap.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**May 2nd, 2010**   
  
  


We're running out of space in our little warehouse.  
  
  


Between keeping some of the good and useful stuff to ourselves and not selling other things, our shelves are slowly filling up.  
  
  


Not to mention that our little living area is slowly filling up as well.  
  
  


We need more space, but we have no idea how to expand. Quite obviously there are no large spend rocket stages there any more. And there won't be any more since everyone stopped launching large rockets.  
  
 **May 3rd, 2010**   
  
  


We had a long brainstorming and found a way to bump up our storage capacity.  
  
  


Danni suggested to ask NASA nicely for an external shuttle tank, but we quickly shot it down. Stellvia has done that already and the TSAB would make us pay them through our nose.  
  
  


The idea to use conventional ISO containers, like we used for the _Toy Box_ is better. We can get them just about everywhere. We got to ask someone to get them to use through.  
  
 **May 5th, 2010**   
  
  


I'm going to kill Terris. Because of him we now have to deal with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs.  
  
  


Apparently he wrote Discovery Channel as a joke some time back and attached a video of one our jobs.  
  
  


Now we need to find a way to get Mike into our table without killing him or exposing him to Handwavium...  
  
 **May 20th, 2010**   
  
  


Today's the day.  
  
  


Mike Rowe is on his way from Stellvia with his crew. I hope they brought those Russian spacesuit with them we rented for them.  
  
  


It is going to be a tight fit here.

* * *

"My name's Mike Rowe, and this is my job. I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty --- hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Now, get ready to get dirty.  
  
  


"Today I'm a little further away from home. More exactly I'm aboard of KA Preiswert..."  
  
  


Mike turned around to Naedial with a furrowed eyebrow while the camera followed his look towards the wogon.  
  
  


"I did say that right, didn't I?"  
  
  


Naedial nodded with a light smirk on her face, making Mike continue.  
  
  


"...KA Preiswert, strange name that. A space station up in Space."  
  
  


He smirked himself.  
  
  


"That's right, people. I thought that we should broaden out horizons a little."  
  
  


Again he turned to face Naedial.  
  
  


"This is out host, Naedial Warringer, the boss of Whistler Orbital Services and the captain of the _Toy Box_."  
  
  


"Hey, Mike."

* * *

"This gotta be the stranges jobs I've ever done."  
  
  


Mike Rowe floated in free space after getting the 5 cent tour of KA Preiswert and some security headup from Terris. Said old ESA hand was floating next to him, a hand holding to one of the large 40 feet containers, while Mike held himself on the station with a cordless drill in hand.  
  
  


"You get used to it," Terris noted." I never expected to handle containers in space either."  
  
  


"What are we doing here anyway?"  
  
  


"We build an expansion of KA Preiswert," Naedial piped up and Mike turned to look into her face, which was only covered by her respirator mask.  
  
  


"Ack," he made, nearly loosing his hold on the station." Don't do that."  
  
  


To him it looked like the wogon was grinning, even through he was unable to tell if she actually did.  
  
  


"Where's your suit? In the wash or something?"  
  
  


While he had known about it beforehand and he had freaked out when he had seen her get into the airlock with only her breathing mask on her face.  
  
  


"Or something," Naedial noted and shrugged." This is why we aren't letting you anywhere near Handwavium. That and my shape.'"

"I see," he made and turned back to the container." This got to be one of the cleanest dirty jobs I've every done."  
  
  


"Maybe be clean, but its dangerous," Terris noted." Just a couple of weeks ago we found someone in light 'waved spacesuit down in LEO. Apparently a flake of paint went straight through his head, when he had problems with his Pinto. It was not pretty."  
  
  


Mike stopped working for a moment.  
  
  


"I don't know if I should worried about the Pinto or the flake of paint."  
  
  


"Be worried about the paint."

* * *

**July 10th, 2010**   
  
  


Mike called us again and forwarded us a copy of the episode up with us.  
  
  


From what I can tell it is a really good episode.  
  
  


However...  
  
  


Discovery is not going to air it in the US. They seem to be afraid of being sued by some anti-fen people.  
  
  


Most likely some Republican hardliner...  
  
  


On the good side, they are airing it in Europe and Japan. And seeing the rather large amount of Discovery fans (or maybe fen?) up here, they may do an Interwave stream from their European site.  
  
  


I for one want that someone slaps some sense into those politicos down there. True, Kandor has nixed some problems for us, but still.  
  
  


At least we could all pay off the debts we took to pay for the _Toy Box_ now.  
  
  


Best not to be known as someone to dodges debts by getting into space. Bad for business that...  
  
 **July 15th, 2010**   
  
  


Managed to reconnect with my folks back home. Even if I needed to pull out a few very embarrassing parts about myself to make them realize that its really me.  
  
  


To say that they were shocked would be an understatement worthy of a Tommy.  
  
  


I gave them my number to call me later.  
  
  


Is going to be better if I allow them some time to digest it.  
  
 **July 21st, 2010**   
  
  


I'm going to be an uncle!  
  
  


Well, okay...  
  
  


I'm going to be an aunt.  
  
  


Looks like I still need to get to terms with my biomod. Or at least a few parts of it.  
  
  


BUT!  
  
  


My sister asked me to be a godparent!  
  
  


On the positive side that means that I will be back to Earth to be present.  
  
  


On the negative side that means that I will have to be back on Earth to be present...  
  
  


With all the stuff that includes it...  
  
  


Name change, gender change, species change...  
  
  


Oh my fracking god...  
  
I think I need to get to Australia ASAP and connect to the German embassy in Canbarra or the consulate in Sidney...  
  
  


I'm going to be stuck in bureaucracy for years...  
  
  


help

* * *

`FROM: Ben <bulletboy@island.fen>  
TO: Naedial <wogonpoet@whistler-os.fen>  
SUBJ: Somebody call for help?  
DATE: 2010/07/22 0243GMT  
Heya Naedial!  
  
Heard it through the grapevine that you need some help getting the red tape sorted   
dirtside. As a favor to a fellow expat of the Fatherland, Gina wants to help out, pro bono.   
We've been through the bureaucratic they got going Down Under, so we at least knew   
where to start. Attached are the documents that you'll need. Fill 'em out and get them   
printed, and we can swing by first thing tomorrow morning and we can get this started.   
  
(Has to be tomorrow because the day after I'm due to run an important shipment.)  
  
No need for repayment, but Gina mentioned that if you happen to be able to come by a   
keg of 'the good stuff' while your visiting home then you will be her most favorite person in   
the entire system.  :)  
  
-Benjamin Rhodes  
Pilot, Grunt Labor, and Co-owner/operator, Bullet Boy Express  
`` _"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."_`  
————————————–  
`FROM: Naedial <wogonpoet@whistler-os.fen>  
TO: Ben <bulletboy@island.fen>  
SUBJ: Re: Sombody call for help?  
DATE: 2010/07/22 0611GMT  
>> Heya Naedial!  
>>  
>> Heard it through the grapevine that you need some help getting the red tape sorted   
>> dirtside. As a favor to a fellow expat of the Fatherland, Gina wants to help out, pro bono.   
>> We've been through the bureaucratic they got going Down Under, so we at least knew   
>> where to start. Attached are the documents that you'll need. Fill 'em out and get them   
>> printed, and we can swing by first thing tomorrow morning and we can get this started.   
  
Thanks.  
  
You are a lifesaver there, that is going to cut down the red tape by a few weeks at least.   
If I could get the paperwork for Germany done that fast as well, I would be set.  
Mainly because we want to register ‘Whistler Orbital Services’ as German company. May get   
is a better reputation for being Germans that way. :p  
  
>> (Has to be tomorrow because the day after I'm due to run an important shipment.)  
  
No problem there, swing by if you like, but call first.  
  
>> No need for repayment, but Gina mentioned that if you happen to be able to come by a   
>> keg of 'the good stuff' while your visiting home then you will be her most favorite person in   
>> the entire system.  :)  
  
I think I will have to live with that then. We still got a 50 liter keg of Krombacher left.   
How would you feel about getting nicely hammered?  
  
Naedial Warringer  
‘Impossible is not a word that exists within the vocabulary of Whistler Corporation’  
‘If its in orbit and broken, we will either run maintainance or salvage it.’`

* * *

**August 13th, 2010**   
  
  


Take that US Republicans!  
  
  


We managed to secure a contract with Hughes Communications for pretty much the same as Astra and Eutelsat. Clean up their graveyard orbits and maintain their satellites.  
  
  


I wonder who is going to try and sue us over that. Or maybe Hughes.  
  
  


I can already see it. Some Republican is going to pull anti-fen bullshit out of his ass to try and stop us from following through with the contract.  
  
  


Bad news for them that we are a registered German Company since last week.  
  
  


I think we're setting a precedent here...  
  
  


I think I'll try to call Noah Scott, from businessperson to businessperson, if he can recommend a lawyer...

* * *

`FROM: Naedial <wogonpoet@whistler-os.fen>  
TO: Noah Scott <big-cheese@stellvia.lib>  
SUBJ: In need of a lawyer  
DATE: 2010/08/13 1841GMT  
  
Good evening,  
  
From one businessperson to the other...  
  
Can you perhaps suggest a good lawyer to me? I think Whistler may be in need of one in the   
next time with a brand new contract with Hughes Communications.  
  
We think that some people may not like a fen company doing business with as US corporation.  
  
Naedial Warringer  
‘Impossible is not a word that exists within the vocabulary of Whistler Corporation’  
‘If its in orbit and broken, we will either run maintainance or salvage it.’`

* * *

  
  


`FROM: Noah Scott <big-cheese@stellvia.lib>  
TO: Naedial <wogonpoet@whistler-os.fen>  
SUBJ: Re: In need of a lawyer  
DATE: 2010/08/13 2047GMT  
  
Good evening,  
  
For legal matters that affect both the Fen and the United States, I recommend the services of   
Rashid Abdallah. He is based in Washington and specializes in international law.  
  
I've taken the liberty of forwarding your contact information to Rashid when I spoke with him  
earlier today. I asked that he give you the same rate that he gives me - if he agrees, you'll   
be getting the services of a lawyer with fifteen years of experience at the rate of a lawyer   
who has just passed the bar. Whether he will agree depends on the impression you make on him   
when he contacts you, so I suggest making a good first impression. (Rashid is what some people   
are calling "fendane" - he isn't about to leave Earth, but he does like some of the crazy things  
we do up here. Just relax and be yourself, and you should be fine.)  
  
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia ("The Gateway to the Solar System")  
Ask about our package tours to Luna!`

* * *

**August 20, 2010**   
  
  


That was fast...  
  
  


Someone guy from rural...  
  
  


Alabama?  
  
  


Alabama... tried to sue us and get a 'Einstweilige Verfügung' in the Amtsgericht Berlin. Only to be shot down with some 88 flak.  
  
  


Well, at least it seemed to be like that. Thankfully we did not need to be there. Might have been messy. Or at least a long flight from Sidney to Berlin or Frankfurt.  
  
  


Good call to get ourselves some lawyers.  
  
  


I bet he'll try to sue Hughes next.  
  
  


**August 30, 2010**   
  
  


Birthday time!  
  
  


My first birthday in speeeece!  
  
  


That makes 31 years of inflicting myself on my surroundings.  
  
  


Thank you whoever is responsible that we could pick up some of the good stuff from Australia when we went through all that red tape. I for one was surprised to find that we found German Pilsner.  
  
  


I would have liked to do a BBQ, but then again its a bad idea on a space station.  
  
  


I wonder about the presents...

* * *

Naedial looked down at her first present, the open box balancing as she sat on the large couch, everyone looking at her.  
  
  


"Surprise!" Danni said with a grin, as everyone chuckled.Naedial pulled a camo patterned something out of the box, with a large number of quick release buckles and what appeared to be MOLLE straps.  
  
  


"What is that..."  
  
  


"Something called 'Tactical Corset'," Danni noted, her grin still present as it was her present." We were surprised that those things exist, too."  
  
  


That it was her idea, Naedial was notified by Vision, and that everyone had put together to get it for her. With a couple of modifications and 'waving.   
  
  


Naedial looked a little wary as she eyed the red dragon.  
  
  


"What did you do?" she asked as she pulled the strange corset from the box.  
  
  


"She added a small speeddrive," Terris said with a smirk." You did complain about your lack of agility while in space."  
  
  


Naedial snorted.  
  
  


"Speeddrive..."  
  
  


"Yep," Terris said." The controls are in the box as well."  
  
  


Placing the thing on the couch next to her, she looked into the box again, discovering a pair of rather classic fingerless gloves. Looking closer she discovered a pair of small analogue pads on the gloves.  
  
  


They were connected to the corset over wireless, Vision informed her. She only needed to make fists to take control. When she did she should be even more maneuverable then Vision.  
  
  


"I'm sure that," Naedial said dryly, knowing that Vision never actually told them how maneuverable she was and filing that away for later.  
  
  


Slowly she stood up and removed her normally ever present tool belt.  
  
  


"Trying it on already?" Alex asked, getting a grin from Naedial.  
  
  


"Why not?" she wondered and slowly put the corset around her waist, before pulling it close. "Bit tight, but okay."  
  
  


"You can adjust the tightness with the buckles," Danni noted as Naedial slipped the gloves over her fingers.  
  
  


She bit her lip as she curled both hands into fists for just a moment, before shaking her head.  
  
  


"Nope, not going to test it now," she said. "Don't want to make an impression on any bulkhead."  
  
  


That got a number of chuckles from the others, while Naedial sat down.  
  
  


"Not uncomfortable," she noted.  
  
  


"Don't forget to open the other presents," Thorsten said and held out his present.  
  
  


Naedial chuckled and took the present, ripping it open. She raised her eyebrow as she looked at the box inside.  
  
  


"MOLLE EOD Tool pouch and a utility pouch," she noted dryily and then looked at her tool belt. "Looks like you want me to get rid of my trusty belt..."  
  
  


"Just doesn't suit you," Alex noted and handed her his present, which was opened quickly. "And any MOLLE gear can be put onto your new corset."  
  
  


Naedial rolled her eyes at the second Tool pouch and something that looked like a pouch for her respirator.  
  
  


"I wonder how I look like after adding these things to it."  
  
  


That got her the present from Terris, who had a very wide grin on her face. Feeling some dread, she opened the present, took a look at it and then proceeded to throw the wrapping paper at the British astronaut.  
  
  


"Smartass," she said with a grin and held up her new E-Tool, complete with MOLLE pouch.

* * *

**August 31, 2010**   
  
  


Today I've had some time to take a closer look at my new 'space corset'.  
  
  


And I noted the two little engines Vision 'waved into the thing. Apparently a pair gyroscopes the size of a cigarette box from a microsat that had been turned into a pair of reactionless drives. No, I won't call them thrusters because that would imply that they are not reactionless.  
  
  


Anyway, they are mounted to the 'space corset' on both sides of the hips and now hidden from view by pouches. I haven't been able to test their full capability yet, but from the looks of it, the small drives are easily among the most maneuvrable things in fenspace. But that reduces other things. I think that I can barely keep up with the _Toy Box_ at full burn, but I have no idea about the max speed. I guess that I would be somewhere about 0.001c up to 0.01c when I trust Visions calculations.  
  
  


Needs further testing, not the little stint outside of KA Preiswert.  
  
 **September 5th, 2010**   
  
  


I just had to...  
  
  


Today I took off after breakfast and set my sight for empty space. Without the _Toy Box_ , just to test out the limits of my 'space corset'.  
  
  


I think I hit the ceiling of the little speed drives somewhere at about 2400 km/s. Not bad for two gyroscopes powered by an pair of 'waved Li-Ion batteries.  
  
  


I'm just glad that my phone got an integrated space navigation system after 'waving it. And that additionally to the normal Android Apps...  
  
  


Oh, and I scared the whit out of some guy driving a Punto on his way to Mars. I swear that he was white as a sheet after I buzzed him.  
  
  


Note to self: Get more Pink Floyd for long journeys alone.  
  
  


Also still trying to think of a use for the E-Tool in space.  
  
  


Fighting off boarders perhaps?  
  
 **September 28th, 2010**   
  
  


I'm an aunt!  
  
  


My sister just had her babies!  
  
  


Yes. Babies. Plural!  
  
  


A boy and a girl. Michael and Isabell.  
  
  


...  
  
  


Okay, I think I need to start to get the correct permits to land the _Toy Box_ at Dortmund and take off again. My family does want to see the _Box_ when I come down when the twins are baptized. And it would be a bad idea to do it without informing the proper authorities and get the permits.  
  
  


We are a Germany company and have to comply to German laws.  
  
  


Even if there are fen who frown at us keeping close relations with Earth.  
  
  


Earth may be our cradle and we need to leave it. But that does not mean that we have to abandon it...  
  
 **October 1st, 2010**   
  
  


My sister called me.  
  
  


The twins are going to be baptized on January 9th next year.  
  
  


Now that I know the date, I can get the permits for that time frame. Hopefully its not going to be as much red tape as with changing identity. Or paying back the loans we took to build the _Toy Box_...  
  
 **October 15th, 2010**   
  
  


One of the first larger contracts for us that are not exactly commercial...  
  
  


NASA asked us to run some service on Hubble. While the Soviets have done some work for them, our work for Astra, Eutelsat and Hughes seems to have been good enough for someone like NASA to ask for our services. Or maybe it was us saving Hubble from that large piece of Chinese satellite three month ago.  
  
  


I for one like the fact that there are enough rocket scientists left in NASA to see the handwavium is a good thing for space exploration, even if we just do it for the money...  
  
  


The parts we need for the maintenance are going to arrive at Stellvia in early November.  
  
 **November 3rd, 2010**   
  
  


NASA actually surprised us then they delivered yesterday. But perhaps that was because Ben did the run. Or the fact that its only a few electronic modules for the telescope.  
  
 **November 4th, 2010**   
  
  


We were just beginning with our work on Hubble when the airwaves started to all but clog up. Apparently some larger ship had made orbit.  
  
  


Quite unusual that. We got new fen in strange new vehicles every week. Sometimes even every day.  
  
  


I still remember that girl in her pink Smart...  
  
  


Anyway, rumor has it that its an Irish military ship with operational guns.  
  
  


I for one can't really understand what the fuzz is all about. Don't people realize that the stuff they throw overboard in orbit is all but a weapon against others?  
  
  


I still want to find that asshat who lost a bucket of scraps, bolts and nuts and throw the stuff into his face. Nearly shredded one of our Orbital Sleds.  
  
  


So what is one real weapon up here anyway?  
  
  


I'm sure that one of the Mads has build a railgun already...  
  
 **November 17th, 2010**   
  
  


What little faith I had in the German bureaucracy is now a little larger.  
  
  


We just got back the paperwork for our landing and flight permissions for Dortmund Airport. The tentive flight plan tells us to come in over the North Sea, before moving into an official flight corridor from Copenhagen to Dortmund.  
  
  


I think that is a good idea. Less change to disturb people on the ground.  
  
 **November 20th, 2010**   
  
  


Looks like someone on the ground couldn't keep his or her mouth shut.  
  
  


I just got a mail from a reporter of 'Der Spiegel', he wants to interview us and write an article on Whistler Orbital Services.  
  
  


Thankfully I consider the 'Spiegel' to be one of the serious weekly papers. If they want to write an article about us and the fen, I won't say 'no'. Can only get us more customers.  
  
 **December 13th, 2010**   
  
  


Okay, now I'm surprised.  
  
  


We, or rather the fen made the headline of 'Der Spiegel'. And from what I can say, the article is mostly positive. Even through they did manage to get some info about the time we lifted off.  
  
  


But then again they took a look at it from out perspective.  
  
  


The others think that it was a good idea as well.  
  
  


I wonder if that article will change something down there.  
  
 **December 20th, 2010**   
  
  


The article did change a bit.  
  
  


A couple of Rhodanites down there read the article from last week and now the Stardust gets an increase of population. So much that they asked us to dock a couple of ships while they expand.  
  
  


And since we are nominally Rhodanites that is not that much of a problem.  
  
  


Bit stuffed here through. And some of the guys wonder why we named out station KA Preiswert, because it certainly is not a large Paddler Platform.  
  
  


We may also have one of the eldest Rhodan fen aboard. Ronald Teckener, a 55 year old Canadian who discovered Rhodan when he was stationed in Iserlohn back in 1964. Nice, bit of stuffy Brit type of guy, but okay. He's even a former Army Major and hitched a ride with Ben, only to be dropped of here.  
  
  


Well, I think we'll see what happens to him.  
  
 **January 7th, 2010**  
  
  


Its time to go back dirtside...  
  
  


My niece and nephew are going to be baptized in two days and I for one want to make sure that no one freaks out when I walz in back home. They might have seen me on video, but in real life that is a tad different...  
  
 **January 8th, 2010**   
  
  


My fabulous return went well. Mostly anyway.  
  
  


When we landed at Dortmund Airport on a rented helicopter pad, we where all but sieged by local and national reporters.  
  
  


Of course I can understand that. The 'Spiegel' article made Whistler well known as 'biggest German fen corporation' and now everyone wants to have a piece of us. We made sure to avoid the guys from the 'Bild' however. We don't want to deal with rainbow press on the same level as the Sun or Fox News.  
The meeting with the family went good, as well. There was some freaking out by the neighbours, but in the end it was nothing too bad.  
  
  


I wonder what the pastor is going to say.  
  
 **January 10th, 2010**   
  
  


At least nobody passed out or screamed 'demon' or something. The pastor looked a tad uneasy when she saw me, but in the end my biomod did not prove to be a large problem. I wonder how it would have gone had we been catholic?  
  
  


Anyway, the following party on the twins made me think, when my brother-in-law asked me why I had really gone to fenspace.  
  
  


I looked at the twins and told him that I did not really know.  
  
  


Sure it seemed like a cool idea at the time and it is still the best I've ever done, but I think it had little to do with the actual reason, which I still don't really know.  
  
  


Some soul searching is in order...  
  
 **January 12th, 2010**   
  
  


Back to orbit, back to work.  
  
  


I think I'll take some timeout to clean my head and think.  
  
  


Strangely enough I can think best when I'm out and do an orbit or two by myself.

* * *

Slowly Earth passed below Naedial as she floated freely in space, her eyes closed and all limbs spread away from her.  
  
  


Breathing lightly she let her thoughts wander, while she listened to Led Zeppelin blasting away in her ears, transmitted into her skull and from there into her inner ear through a pair of waved earplugs.  
  
  


Why was she up here?  
  
  


That question ran through her head for some time.  
  
  


It was not just for the good time with friends and other fen.  
  
  


It was not only for the thrill of doing a dangerous job or to be payed good money for the same.  
  
  


It was not for the ability to float in space unprotected on her own.  
  
  


She breathed in deep again and slowly opened her eyes and looked down at the passing of the world beneath her.  
  
  


Exactly that was it.  
  
  


She was here for this view down to this pale blue dot in the width of the wide inky blackness of space.  
  
  


It was the view of the future. Not just her own, but that of everyone.  
  
  


To see Earth like this, to give everyone the change to look down at Earth and say 'I was born there' or 'Our parents were born down there'.  
  
  


To see that most of those petty problems down there didn't matter. Be it gender, 'race', skin color, religion.  
  
  


All the energy directed at those 'problems' should be directed to other things. Like exploring the universe around them. Either through wavetech or hardtech. It didn't really matter.  
  
  


All that mattered was that it was the future, and she wanted to help build that future.  
  
  


That was why she was up here and not down there.  
  
To build a better future.

  
  



End file.
